On Sunday, I shared the story of my first baking competition at the Sacramento Chef Challenge. I developed this Ginger Root Beer Float Cupcake recipe to fit the “Hot Summer’s Night” theme and also incorporate the secret ingredient, ginger. I tried different combinations of ginger beer, root beer, fresh ginger, and ground ginger, and I found that root beer and ground ginger came together for the best flavor.

I tried several brands of root beer and settled on Capt’n Eli’s Root Beer, which I found locally at Nugget Market. It’s sweetened with cane sugar and has wintergreen oil, anise, vanilla and other spices and flavorings, which gives it a strong, spicy root beer flavor. The cupcakes came out extremely moist and light, with a strong root beer flavor at first and lingering ginger aftertaste.

I topped the ginger root beer cupcakes with a vanilla bean buttercream frosting that tastes like vanilla ice cream. This is a winning recipe – literally. The professional judges and 1,000 event attendees voted that this was the top cupcake out of all the contenders, including ones from professional cupcake bakeries.

If you want to read more about my saga of baking 350+ cupcakes in my home kitchen in 2 days, plus how we incorporated the theme into a display (a mini drive-in movie theater for cupcakes), visit my last post Battle Cupcakes: My First Baking Competition.

In a large bowl, combine root beer and vinegar and let stand for a few minutes. Add sugar and oil, then whisk until mixture is slightly frothy. Pour in vanilla extract and root beer concentrate and whisk until combined.

In a medium bowl, mix together flour with baking soda, baking powder, ground ginger and salt. Pour into root beer mixture and whisk until ingredients are just combined.

Ayesha

I am so excited to try these cupcakes. My husband absolutely loves root beer and these will be perfect. In our trials of all root beers, Captain Eli’s is a tasty choice! Congratulations on winning, Stephanie.

Sounds delish!
What do you think about the idea of turning this into an ice cream cake, especially using a homemade (or least gourmet-quality if store-bought) vanilla bean ice cream between the ginger root beer cake layers?
(Or just make the cupcakes as-is since they are so cute with the little stripped straws like mini-float cups, and just serve with vanilla ice cream!) 🙂

@ David, Ayesha, Marisa, Luli – thanks! I hope you all enjoy 🙂
@Stephanie R – I had that same thought! If I were entering Cupcake Project’s Ice Cream Cupcake Contest this year, I would have added vanilla ice cream to this and submitted it (I’m a judge this year so I can’t enter).

You have inspired me to start a blog, see my web address, only one post on there so far would appreciate a read. Any tips for successful blogging would be great.David recently posted Deliciously Moist Chocolate Cupcakes

I am SO thrilled to hear that your adventure turned out to be a great one, Stephanie! WOOT WOOT! Way to knock ’em out of the parkBecca from It’s Yummilicious recently posted FUN WITH FOOD – Hot Dog Splits

candice

September 15, 2013 at 3:47 pm (5 years ago)

Hi Steph, was so in love with your cupcakes that you have made! Feel like trying it!
Would like to check with you how long did you allow the root beer and vinegar to stand for in step 2? Like how many minutes in particular?

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